Friday, March 24, 2017

March 24, 2017 (BBC Europe) Some
20,000 people are being evacuated after a series of explosions at a massive
arms depot in eastern Ukraine described by officials as sabotage. The base in
Balakliya, near Kharkiv, is around 100km (60 miles) from fighting against
Russian-backed separatists. The dump is used to store thousands of tonnes of
ammunition including missiles and artillery weapons. Rescue teams are
overseeing a huge evacuation effort for people living in the city and nearby
villages. The total area of the dump spans more than 350 hectares, the military
says. Everyone within a 10km (6 miles) radius of the dump is being evacuated,
the Interfax news agency quoted an aide to President Petro Poroshenko as
saying. Munitions from the depot are used to supply military units in the
conflict zone in nearby Luhansk and Donetsk, reports say.

A huge cloud of smoke could be seen billowing above the
ammunition depot of the Ukrainian armed forces on Thursday